


The Two Spider Apprentices

by chlodobird



Series: The Dragon of Hell's Kitchen [5]
Category: Daredevil (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Matt Murdock, BAMF Peter Parker, Fluff, Gen, Human Disaster Matt Murdock, Peter is a Little Shit, SO MUCH BANTER, Sweet Miles Morales, Team Bonding, he's always a badass, it's just a little more prominent in this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:26:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23150167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chlodobird/pseuds/chlodobird
Summary: So, timeline-wise, this is about a year after the last one. I'll probably fill in a couple in the middle, I just really wanted to write some Miles bc he's a sweetheart. all you need to know till then is that there's a shift in how Matt treats Peter and vice versa because of how much time they spent together training and stopping crime. I'll put more details about what I'm going to write for that year in the end notes, if you're curious.Anyway, enjoy!
Relationships: Matt Murdock & Peter Parker, Miles Morales & Matt Murdock, Miles Morales & Peter Parker
Series: The Dragon of Hell's Kitchen [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1660564
Comments: 24
Kudos: 312





	1. Spiders Don’t Always Need Silk To Fly

**Author's Note:**

> So, timeline-wise, this is about a year after the last one. I'll probably fill in a couple in the middle, I just really wanted to write some Miles bc he's a sweetheart. all you need to know till then is that there's a shift in how Matt treats Peter and vice versa because of how much time they spent together training and stopping crime. I'll put more details about what I'm going to write for that year in the end notes, if you're curious.  
> Anyway, enjoy!

It was a normal evening patrol for Matt until Peter barreled into earshot, cursing under his breath and being pursued by a- what?

“What the fuck?” he muttered to himself.

It sounded like a mixture between a human and a dragon, but that had to be wrong. 

It couldn’t be.

“Daredevil, I think this guy’s half-dragon!”

Shit.

He took off over the rooftops, slipping into the edges of his fire to increase his speed, and tracked the fight. They were out of Hell’s Kitchen in a heartbeat, and he followed them further into Manhattan. The creepy hybrid made a lucky swipe and caught Peter when they were halfway through the Garment District, and Matt roared in anger. He was in his dragon skin before he even processed the idea of changing forms, and leapt into the sky to attack the not-dragon.

“Drop him!” he growled.

The lizard-man did as he said, and Peter caught the side of a building on his way down. “Hey, want me to help, or-?”

Matt pinned the smaller, twisted,  _ wrong _ dragon down and growled, “Change back.”

“I can’t!” it said.

“Why?”

“Because I fucked up!” It was squirming, trying to get free, and Matt growled wordlessly at him until he stopped. “A week ago, I broke into Oscorp with the Prowler. He wanted to steal some blueprints, but I just wanted to fuck with Osborne, man! But I saw a vial and the research suggested it might regrow my arm. Instead it did this!”

Matt tilted his head and realized the thing underneath him was indeed missing in arm. “You broke into a lab and injected yourself with a random serum?” he said in disbelief. Its heartbeat didn’t sound like it was lying, but he’d been tricked before, and that seemed incredibly stupid.

“He stole my research! I was working on a way to regrow limbs, but Osborne took it! Based on the files I skimmed through, he finished it, he just hadn’t moved on to trials. I wasn’t thinking straight, okay? Just let me go!”

Peter landed beside him, and frowned. “Wait, he stole your research? Osborn released an announcement about their work on limb regeneration, but he said it was inspired by his compassion for his friend- wait! You’re Curt Conners?”

“He didn’t work on that project to help me! He stole that project!”

Matt tilted his head at Peter, who shrugged. “Academic dishonesty is a pretty big issue. I’m not super surprised.”

“Okay,” he said, turning back to the lizard man. “Why were you chasing Spider-Man?”

“Because he was fucked up by Oscorp too! I saw the spiders there. You got bitten, didn’t you? Don’t you want to destroy Osborn?”

Peter shook his head. “Dude, this is on you. You’re the one who decided more crime was the answer.”

“Didn’t you do the same? Mine was just a little less altruistic,” the lizard shot back.

Matt growled and redirected the conversation. “So if I let you go, you wouldn’t try to grab him again?”

“Osborn will pay for what he’s done!”

Reluctantly, Matt shoved him to his feet and tilted his head to get a better idea of the human experiment. He smelled like chemicals, and Matt wrinkled his nose in disgust.

“You’re not just human and you’re not just dragon, dumbass. There’s some plain old lizard in there too.” He took a deeper breath, and froze.

“I’m going to kill Osborn,” he said, very calmly.

Peter groaned. “God, you’re such a drama queen. What is it this time?”

“He didn’t just stumble on a serum that can turn people into fucked up dragon hybrids,” Matt hissed. “He used Elektra’s blood to do it.”

He turned to head for Oscorp without a second thought, but Peter caught his attention. “What about Conners? We can’t just leave him here!”

“You’re right,” he growled. He whirled on the hybrid and bared his teeth. “Get the fuck out of New York. This is my city. My territory. I don’t care if you’re only kind of a dragon. I’ll give you two lessons for free. Don’t live on another dragon’s territory and don’t fuck with their hoard.”

Connors nodded, heart racing, and Matt huffed, letting some steam fill the rooftop with the smell of fire as a warning.

“Spidey, you coming?”

“Sure, I always kind of wanted to see what they did to make that spider,” Peter said thoughtfully. “Maybe I can sneak a look at their research while you beat the shit out of Osborn.”

Matt grumbled wordlessly and tilted his head at his back. “Climb on and we can talk about it away from this asshole.” Not being in the familiar Hell’s Kitchen had him even more on edge.

Peter’s heart bumped up a notch. “Really? You’re going to let me  _ fly _ with you?”

“Cat’s out of the bag about being a dragon. I can fly around as much as I want,” Matt said. He breathed out to gauge the swirling air currents, It was a good night for flying.

“Hell yeah!”

Peter leapt onto his back in one smooth jump and Matt took off, soaring in lazy circles. If Conners had broken into Oscorp a week ago, Elektra would survive an extra five minutes to let the kid enjoy his first flight.

“This is so much better than the time I was on the outside of a plane!” Peter shouted into the wind.

Apparently, not his first flight, just his first that wasn’t terrifying. Matt did one more round over Hell’s Kitchen before swooping down to land on a rooftop below. He let Peter off and shifted back, and grinned at the teen.

“Pretty cool, isn’t it?”

“We should do that more often!” he said, his voice full of the thrill of flight. “Dude, that was so cool! It’s like a roller coaster but smoother and quiet and the view is amazing! I bet it would be even prettier at night, when all the lights are on, but it’s super cool. Um, the view- there’s a ton of really reflective buildings poking up among the older buildings, and they’re showing the beginnings of a hazy sunset. It’s not quite sunset yet, so the horizon and the shiny buildings are mostly blue-grey but with just a little yellow orange seeping in, and the older ones are mostly a warm brown that contrast really well. I wish I had my camera.”

Matt grinned. “Next time.”

Peter’s heartbeat jumped, and he sounded like he was beaming when he spoke. “Next time? Yes!”

“Now that Connors is out of range, we can talk,” Matt said to direct them back to the matter at hand. With Matt back in Hell’s Kitchen and the fucked-up not-dragon out of earshot, he was feeling significantly less prickly.

“So, what do we know? Osborn has Elektra. She’s another dragon, and he’s using her blood in experiments. We know that he made a funky spider that made me Spider-Man, so that’s at least two mutations Oscorp has created. Oh, that might be something to check for in the future, if that company isn’t responsible with their projects.”

Matt nodded. “I propose we break in and find Elektra. While I’m getting her out of there, you check their spider research and anything else you think might be interesting. One of us needs to destroy their samples of Elektra’s blood, too.”

“They should have that wherever they’re keeping her,” Peter said thoughtfully, “but I bet their systems would have more info about their research. Ned! He can help, he’s a tech genius.”

“Yeah, talk to him. I don’t want any details on dragons out there for as long as possible. I know it’ll get out eventually, but . . .” Matt shrugged. “Who knows what a corporation would do with the data? That’s a good lesson for you. Don’t trust big business. Fuck ’em.”

“Is that why you started your own place?”

“Hell yeah. Landman & Zack cared about money, not helping people. My evidence: when we took out Fisk, we found out they were corrupt shitbags.” Matt shook his head to clear his thoughts and refocused. “Anyway. Yeah, talk to your friend, see what he can do. I’d rather not bring him to Oscorp, it’ll be faster to get in and out on our own.”

Peter pulled his phone out of one of his suit’s hidden pockets, and dialed Ned. “Hey, would you be able to hack into Oscorp from your room?”

“Yeah, easily. What do you need me to do?”

“Copy as much info as you can, and then wipe the files about their spider experiments and the shit about limb regeneration or dragons or lizards. If anything else seems suspicious, call me. Oh, and can you help us break in? Dismantling the alarms and looping the cameras would help a lot.”

“No problem! Guy in the chair time. I’ll text you when it’s done.” Matt heard the sound of knuckles popping and a computer starting to hum before Peter hung up.

“We’re good, let’s go.”

Matt grinned, and slipped back into his dragon form. “What are we waiting for, then?”

Peter laughed and hopped back on, and Matt swept into the air gracefully. “Where’s the lab again?”

The teen laughed. “It’s in Midtown. We took forever to get here for my school trip, but from here it’s only a few blocks away. Oscorp Tower is the big one at your 10 o’clock.”

Matt adjusted his course accordingly, and circled it once, assessing before landing on the roof. “There’s still scientists in there, but it’s fairly quiet. I can’t tell if Elektra’s there from so far away if she’s not talking. I have to get closer to smell her or find her heartbeat. You go find the spiders, I’ll work my way down from the top floor. If you’re not back on the roof in thirty minutes, I’ll come get you. If I’m not out in that time, get out of here.”

Peter groaned. “Don’t be an idiot. I’m not going to ditch you.”

“If they can catch two dragons, they can catch you too. What do you think they’d do with proof that their spiders can enhance people?”

“I’m just supposed to leave you there?”

“No, if something goes wrong, you go get Jess and the others.”

“Fine,” he said grumpily. “I’m going to go look at some fucking spider research. See you later.”

He tore the roof access open with no regard for the steel locks and disappeared into the building. Matt followed, transforming back into a human with ease. He kept an ear out for Elektra’s distinct heartbeat as he slipped down the staircase, sweeping each floor with his radar as he descended. He was below the surface by the time he found her heartbeat twenty minutes later. Ten minutes left.

He raced through the halls and halted at a thick metal door. A quick shift later and he ripped through it like butter. “Elektra?”

“What? Why are you here?”

“You’re okay?” He didn’t hear anything wrong, or smell any blood.

“Of course,” she said smoothly. “I’m only here because I want to be, you should know that.”

“I just ran into a guy who got turned into a dragon-human-lizard hybrid, Elektra,” Matt grumbled. “He smelled like your blood, so I got worried.”

“Aww, I’m flattered. But no, I’m here to investigate, even if they aren’t aware. I heard they had ties to Roxxon, and therefore-”

“The Hand,” Matt sighed. “I’ll leave you to it. I assume you don’t need backup?”

“It’s sweet of you to check, but you know me,” she purred.

“Have fun,” he said over his shoulder on his way out. “Sorry I interrupted.”

“Good luck with your little hatchling!”

Matt took the elevator up, since he didn’t have to pause at every floor to check for Elektra, and once he was at the roof, he transformed into a dragon to pace and wait for Peter. So far, Ned had their back with the security, and there were only a couple minutes left before the thirty minute mark. Hopefully Peter didn’t hit any big snags.


	2. You're Like Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Typical . . . two teens committing a little bit of crime while a tired millennial waits in the wings disapprovingly. Just your average night.  
> Alternatively: "Wait, if I'm breaking into this science lab, and you're breaking into this science lab, then who's flying the plane?!"

Peter was moving quickly until he reached the spider lab. He recognized it from his field trip, and just like last time, the door that should be locked was slightly ajar.

That was weird.

He reached out mentally, sensing the vibrations through the ground. There was someone in there, he thought. What would Matt do?

Peter breathed, and  _ moved _ . The other person didn’t even realize he was there before he pinned them against a wall and glared into the eye-holes of their ill-fitting ski mask. “Who are you?” he growled.

“I’m- I don’t have to tell you!” he squeaked.

Wait. “You’re just a kid?” he asked, momentarily thrown from his interrogation.

“Hey! I’m fourteen!”

“Yeah, but you’re not just, like, a really short scientist, is what I mean,” Peter argued. “I thought you worked for Oscorp, man!”

“No! I’m breaking in, just like you!”

He refocused and deepened his scowl. “Why?”

“To see the spiders,” he said, as if it were obvious.

In his defense, it kind of was; they  _ were _ in the spider lab, after all. Peter scrambled to get his train of thought back on track, and stepped away from the kid. What else did Matt say to do to interrogate people? This was usually Daredevil’s part of the job. Peter crossed his arms and tried to sound angry. “Why do you want to see the spiders?”

“Because I think I got bitten by one of them?” 

He sounded uncertain, and Peter’s eyes widened, abandoning his grilling altogether in favor of curious questioning. “Whoa, really?”

“Yeah, I started getting really weird powers. I’m- sticky? And I asked my roommate, and he started rambling about- well,  _ you _ , and your spider powers, and then I remembered getting bitten by a spider with Uncle Aaron, so I asked him about it and he got super nervous, so I snuck around in his apartment and found some stuff labelled Oscorp. And then I googled ‘Oscorp spider’ and found out they were researching them? So, well.” He spread his arms. “Now I’m here.”

“Shit, you really are like me,” Peter said in surprise. “Spider bite buddies!”

The teen sounded suspicious all of a sudden. “Wait, how old are you? You sound young.”

“I’m sixteen,” Peter admitted. “But I’ve been doing this for a year and a half.”

“How  _ do _ you do it?” he asked, his voice cautious. Peter frowned- did this guy want to be a vigilante?

“I found help. Daredevil’s been training me, and he’s got a ton of vigilante friends. They’re all really awesome, even that idiot.”

“If I-” He hesitated. “If I wanted to help my neighborhood, would you help me?”

Shit, he did want to fight. What did Matt do a year ago when Peter asked him the same question? He tilted his head appraisingly. “It depends. Why would you want to be a vigilante? We mostly end up sad or dead. I’ve got scars and trauma for days, dude.”

The other teenager glanced around the dim room, at the spiders huddled in tanks on top of tanks on top of tanks, but his gaze landed on his backpack, traced the smudges of paint on it. 

“Because I want to make the world better. I want to make a difference.”

Okay. Note to self: apologize to Matt for making fun of him for being old, because talking to even a  _ slightly _ younger vigilante made him feel absolutely ancient. “Okay. I’m on board.”

Mystery Teen glanced up at him with wide, hopeful eyes, and Peter hated that he was about to help teach him how to always be looking for danger. “Look, I’m going to get what I came for and then we’ll get to the roof and get out of here.”

He turned to the computer and skimmed through the spider research for a few minutes. He only understood about half of it, but from what he could tell, the spiders were based on one original mutated spider. The scientists here didn’t know where it was from. Before it died, Oscorp used it to create more mutated spiders in hopes of figuring out what the mutation was.

Peter glanced over each of the categories of mutations, and grinned over his shoulder at the other teen. “I’m glad I’m not from group A-113! Those spiders all died from radiation poisoning in a week or two. Yikes. Maybe I’m from E-616? Wait, no, the data doesn’t match right.”

The new guy leaned over his shoulder to look at the list. “Is there one that can shock stuff?”

“What?” Peter said, gawking at him. “You can do that?”

“I guess? My roommate surprised me in our room and I accidentally zapped him.” He correctly interpreted Peter’s silence as quiet horror and rushed to assure him, “He knows about the spider bite though, so he was cool with it.”

“That’s so cool!” His excitement at the new powers was interrupted by remembering his crime-fighting friend. He snorted, and said with a grin, “Oh, Double D is gonna love this. Even more powers for him to have no clue how to train.”

“Sorry about that,” he said sheepishly.

“Dude, don’t be! I’m making fun of Daredevil, not  _ you _ , this  _ rocks _ . Anyway, I’m not looking to match my powers. After the bite, I analysed some of my blood. That’s what I’m trying to match up. I think . . . I might be from group C-962,” he said thoughtfully, staring at the numbers. “It doesn’t look like many of them have had serious side effects, luckily.”

“I mean, it makes sense. If it was going to escape and bite you, it would have to survive long enough to do it.”

“That’s fair. How did you say you were bitten? Your uncle carried it home?”

“I think so.”

Peter hummed in acknowledgement and stared harder at the information in front of him. “Huh. Looks like these spiders were all the offspring of the original spider. It’s not a species I recognize.”

“You think maybe it’s a new discovery?” the new guy asked curiously.

“Don’t know.”

They spent another few minutes discussing the info before Peter realized the time. “Shit, we gotta go. We have three minutes before I’m late and Daredevil gets worried. Oops.”

The new guy nodded and Peter grinned. “Come on, Spider-Man. Let’s go.” He left him sputtering in the lab, trusting him to catch up. (He did.)

They only made it down two hallways before they ran into a guard. Peter saw him reach for his walkie-talkie and surged into motion, but the guard was faster.

“Intruders, 34th floor! Send-”

Peter cut him off by leaping forward and punching him, then webbing him to a wall, but it was too late. He could already hear the radio responding.

“Sending extra security your way and calling the police.”

“Shit, I’m gonna be late.” Peter groaned.

They found the staircase quickly and started up, but Peter held out a hand for the other teen to wait. He tilted his head to focus, and sighed. “I need you to follow me. Just try to stay out of the way, okay?”

He nodded nervously, and the pair started running up the stairs. Peter incapacitated three more guards, ducking under arms and webbing them to walls.

Throughout it all, he kept up a steady stream of banter.

“Fuck, I hate fighting uphill,” he grumbled. Dodged a fist and tossed the guard over his shoulder. Web. “That’s a lesson for you, sunshine, try to get the high ground. Like Obi-Wan Kenobi!” Peter said cheerily. “Wow, I’m gonna be a great teacher.”

He didn’t bother to check the new guy’s reaction, because he was already webbing up the new guard’s gun. “Web up guns first so nobody gets shot,” he continued, “because trust me, it hurts.”

The next two guards rushed them in tandem, and Peter barreled forward, clotheslining them with glee. “Seriously? That was borderline pathetic,” he teased as he webbed them to the ground and stepped over them. They’d climbed about two flights of stairs, and Peter rolled his eyes at the five or so more to go. Ugh.

“Are you good to keep this up?” the other teen asked worriedly.

“Ha! I can do this all day.”

Another dodge, another three webbed up guns and guards. Above him, he faintly heard the sounds of punches.

“It took you long enough!” he called.

“I was willing to give you the full thirty minutes! Figures you would be the one who got caught,” Daredevil yelled back.

“Did you find Elektra?” Another guard down.

“She’s staying. Did you pick up a fucking-” He was cut off by a loud thump, presumably him getting tossed against a wall. A flurry of punches, in Daredevil’s zone and Spider-Man’s area, kept them from continuing for another few seconds. “Did you pick up a stray?”

“Well . . . remember when I found you?” Peter said charmingly. Well, as charmingly as he could, shouting the words in between swinging his fists and feet.

“Yes,” Matt yelled. “Get to the point!”

“Another kid just got bit and he wants us to train him!”

“Shit!” Matt evidently didn’t love this development, because Peter heard him punching with renewed vigor. The teen webbed up another few guards and took advantage in the hesitation of the guards to turn to the new guy.

“You good?”

He looked a little scared, but mostly determined. “Yeah. Can I do anything to help?”

“Just keep doing . . . whatever it is you’re doing back there,” Peter said with a shrug. “You haven’t gotten shot, so we’re all good here.”

“But I need to prove I can fight!”

“We’ve got this,” Peter reassured him. He turned and webbed a guard to the wall, and punched the next one before he could do anything. They were coming much more hesitantly now, and it was working in Peter’s favor. “Seriously, I can convince Double D to train you, you don’t have to try to impress him. The punching can wait.”

Before he knew it, he was running next to a cranky dragon and the trio was booking it to the rooftop. 

When they got out into the open air, the new guy screeched to a halt. “Wait, where do we go from here?” he said, slightly panicky. “I can’t shoot webs!”

Peter gestured to Matt, who grumbled and slid into his dragon form. He hopped on and looked expectantly at the new guy. “Well? What are you waiting for?”

His expression (what Peter could see of it with the ski mask in the way) was absolutely priceless. “ _ What _ ?”

From the smirk on Matt’s dragon-ey face, his heartbeat was as expressive as his eyes. “They’re coming, you’d better hurry up.”

Peter sighed at his friend’s dramatics, and held out a hand for the other teen. “Come on.”

He scrambled up and settled lightly behind Peter, and Matt launched himself into the air. When they were back in the air over Hell’s Kitchen, he warned them, “Cover your ears,” before he took a deep breath.

And  _ roared _ .

There were no words, but everyone who heard it understood. Peter grinned through his wince at the volume.

Matt was finally declaring that there was a dragon in Hell's Kitchen, and that the city was _his_.

Behind him, Peter heard the new guy pull off his ill-fitting ski mask. He tilted his head thoughtfully. “May I look?”

“Um. Yeah,” the other vigilante said nervously.

When Peter turned around, he grinned. The golden light from the sunset illuminated a friendly-looking black teen, with dark curly hair and a sweet smile. He pulled off his mask too, and tucked it into a pocket.

“I’m Peter Parker.”

The new Spider-Man beamed at him, and said confidently, “My name is Miles. Miles Morales.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would absolutely DIE for the movie Into the Spiderverse, but also, I didn't quite know how to work in the "You're like me?" spideysense with how I'm interpreting it. I'm thinking of it like Peter sensing vibrations and his brain interpreting it really fast, before he gets a concrete idea of what's happening. kind of like Matt's 360 radar, and how irl spiders are very sensitive to vibrations in foliage and their webs and can pinpoint movement that way. There's still definitely a bit more sciencey radioactive wackiness to it than just vibrations, but Matt and Peter are working with what they're got, which is "enhanced senses+training=better situational awareness", and they assume it's just Peter sensing vibrations. I'm especially thinking of how Miles in the movie knew how to duck without looking behind him? Very Matt of him. Anyway, my point is, I didn't feel like figuring out an explanation for a vibration-based spidey-sense recognizing other spiders, so I decided to just leave it alone (but i still love the concept from the spider-verse, so I put it in the chapter title)


	3. Would You Rather: Get Beat Up, or Do Physics Homework?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for some bonding! Miles and Peter like to chill on rooftops, and Matt is (as always) torn between "talk to friends" and "beat up criminals".

The light from buildings and streetlights was starting to stand out in the growing darkness, and Peter smiled at the idea of a flight in the dark sometime. Matt landed lightly on a rooftop in Hell’s Kitchen, and when the two spider-kids were firmly on the ground, he shifted back into his human form and groaned.

“It’s a good thing we’re training Miles because it looks like we need to go over basic stealth,” Matt said pointedly.

Peter shrugged. “You try being stealthy when you’ve got a kid following you. Wait-”

Matt started laughing hard enough that Miles looked genuinely worried. When he caught his breath, he composed himself enough to say, “Remember that time you tripped over a paint can and then told me you did it because it was dark? And then the smugglers had enough warning that we had to fight for twice as long? Or the time that-”

Peter shot a glance over at Miles’ rapt stare and cut Matt off. “Hey! Want to introduce yourself? Instead of telling embarrassing stories all evening, because I have plenty of you, too, and then we’d both look like idiots.”

He tugged off his Daredevil helmet and stuck out a hand. “Hi. I’m Matt Murdock. It’s good to meet you,” he had the nerve to say smoothly, as if he hadn’t  _ just _ been making fun of Peter.

“If it’s not about vigilantes or job advice, don’t listen to a word he says,” Peter warned. “Once I asked him if he had any good book recommendations and he just talked about Thurgood Marshall for like, three days.”

Miles nodded, eyes wide, and Matt retaliated with, “Once Peter fell asleep on the ceiling and then fell off.”

“Oh, it’s on, old man,” he shot back.

“Um, you two  _ are _ okay with training me?” Miles asked unsurely.

“As long as you’re sure about this,” Matt said with a shrug. “I guarantee you’ll end up with some PTSD, and another extra mental illness or three, but at least we help people, right?”

Peter kept his eyes fixed on the new kid, but instead of looking worried, he looked determined. “I’ve already got anxiety. Let’s do this.”

Matt laughed, and turned to Peter. “You’re being replaced. This is a much better teenager. I like him.”

He crossed his arms. “Maybe you’re the one being replaced.”

“Oh, is that so? You think you could train this kid?” Matt challenged. “Square up. Let’s see how much you’ve learned.”

Miles watched with growing alarm, but Peter grinned. He loved when he and Matt picked fights and went at it. “Alright, old man, do it. If you think your knees can handle it. Or is it your hip?”

Daredevil struck like a coiled spring being released, and Peter dodged the fist in a blur of motion, and took the opportunity to kick Matt’s legs out from under him. The older vigilante turned him momentum into a flip and kicked Peter in the chest in midair- or, he would have, if Peter hadn’t anticipated the strike and moved out of the way. 

When Matt landed, Peter traded another few blows with him. Matt twisted around him and tripped him. He caught Peter before he face-planted and pinned him to the ground. “So, Miles,” Matt said. Peter assumed he was grinning by his tone of voice, but he could only see the ground he was pressed against and a sliver of the building next to them. “Are you ready to join the team? I’ll be training you both, because this kid still has a lot to learn.”

Peter wriggled, testing the hold, but slumped back down, accepting defeat. Matt relented and let him up, giving him a disapproving and somehow smug look. Peter gave him a well-deserved scowl, despite the ineffectiveness. “I take it back. Vigilantism sucks. You would have to put up with this guy. Go pick up a useful, not crime-related hobby.”

“I like to draw?” Miles offered tentatively.

“Oh, can I see your art?” Matt replied, with a shit-eating grin.

Peter punched him in the shoulder for that comment. “Miles, ignore him, he’s blind and an asshole.”

“Whoa. How do you fight so well? Is it magic dragon stuff?” the teen asked.

“I use fancy echolocation,” Matt said with a shrug. “Enhanced senses.”

“Yep. He’s Batman!”

“Not all of us are furries, Peter.”

“Hey! I’m not a furry!”

Peter watched as Matt opened his mouth to retort and got distracted. “Crime calls, huh?”

“Annoyingly enough. Peter, keep an eye on Miles and stay out of trouble tonight. I’m going to go scare some potential muggers, rapists, and drug dealers. Try to spread the word that I’m the dragon that was flying around earlier. I’ll be back in about an hour,” he said, jamming his helmet back on.

When he was off the roof, Peter turned to Miles and grinned. “So, how did you break into Oscorp? I didn’t realize we had a baby criminal mastermind on our hands.”

“I didn’t break in! I pretended I was sick and left school, then when I got here I waited in the park across the street and went in when three schools arrived all at once. Everyone assumed I was with a different school. Then I snuck away and waited in a bathroom until they closed.”

“Nice,” Peter said admiringly. “But wow, their security is shit.”

Miles shoved his hands in his pockets, and his voice went quiet. “If my uncle brought the spider home, and had a bunch of Oscorp tech hidden, do you . . . do you think he broke in and stole it?”

“I mean, maybe? But maybe he just was working for them. What’s his job?”

“I um-” Miles looked unsure. “I don’t know. He said he works with tech a lot?”

Peter winced. Shit. Sounds a lot like he’s a criminal. “Maybe you should ask your parents?”

“My dad doesn’t like to talk about him. They were close when they were younger, but not anymore.”

Yikes, it was looking more and more likely.

“My uncle died,” Peter blurted, in an attempt to change topics. It did not help.

Miles’ eyes widened. “Shit, I’m sorry. How long ago?”

“A bit over a year and a half.”

“I’m so sorry, I can’t imagine losing Uncle Aaron. He um. He got shot a few months ago, and he’s fine now, but,” Miles bit his lip and stared at the ground. “I don’t want anyone to hurt people in New York. If he was in that same situation today, I want to know that I’d be able to save him from getting hurt.”

Peter sighed. “I understand that.”

They stood in silence for a few minutes, listening to the honking cars below them. 

Peter was the first one to speak. “Listen, even if he is a criminal, he’s still your uncle. That won’t change.”

“I know. But I’m Spider-Man now! What if I find him committing a crime? How do I stop him?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” he assured him. “We don’t even know if he’s a criminal yet.”

Miles still looked worried, and Peter searched for something helpful to add. “Look, would a plan make you less worried?” He got a nod in reply. “Then we’ll make a plan. Talk to your parents first and see what they’ll tell you. Then, if you feel safe asking your uncle about it, ask him. If no one in your family says anything, I know how to find out for sure. We will find out if he’s a criminal, and make a plan based on that.”

Miles smiled hesitantly. “Thanks, Peter.”

“No worries, dude. Anyway, Matt had a point about your art. Can I see some of it, if you have pictures or something?”

“Yeah!” He pulled out his phone and tapped a few times, navigating to his photos. “These are a few of the walls I’ve tagged, mostly with Uncle Aaron.”

He turned the phone so Peter could see, and his jaw dropped. “MIles, those are  _ so good _ .”

“Thanks!” He was beaming, but Peter was preoccupied with the small pictures on Miles’ phone.

“Seriously, so cool. Why are you at Visions? You should be at an art school, showing these off.”

“I’m smart, and my dad thinks that just because I  _ can _ do science, I should,” Miles said, slightly grumpy. “At least Mom likes my art.”

Peter got the sense that he was balancing on the edge of a family grudge, and carefully steered around it. “So, you mentioned that you needed some help with classes?”

Miles nodded. “It’s a lot compared to my old school.”

“What are you guys working on? I can probably help.”

The younger teen dumped his backpack on the roof and knelt to rifle through it. “It’s in here somewhere,” he said, half to Peter, and half to himself. “Aha!”

He pulled out a slightly crumpled page of incomplete equations triumphantly. “We were working on this today in physics? But I don’t quite get it.”

Peter laughed. “Oh, no worries. I’ve got this. So, here they’re just combining torque and momentum. I’m assuming you’ve already learned those concepts?”

“Um . . . yes?”

“No worries, I’ll walk you through it.”

The pair worked on Miles’ homework for the next forty-five minutes, and Miles had just triumphantly finished the long worksheet when Matt jogged up to them. He had a huge grin on his face, and Peter raised his eyebrows. It looked like the older vigilante had news. “What did you do?”

“I talked to a buddy of mine. Melvin Potter. He said that he’d be happy to make a suit for you, Miles. And Peter, I know you got rid of all the creepy tech STark put in your suit with the trackers and video and shit, but if you wanted a suit with actual armor . . .” Matt trailed off meaningfully, and Peter’s jaw dropped.

“Seriously? I’ve been hinting about a new suit for months!”

Matt’s expression turned similarly shocked. “What? When were you doing that?”

He groaned. “Foggy’s right. You’re oblivious. God, I figured you just didn’t want to bother whoever made your suit.”

“No! When the hell were you hinting about a new suit?”

“Oh, I don’t know, how about every time I asked you what yours was made of and complimented the tensile strength of the armor, and asking about the science, and you just kept shrugging and saying you didn’t know how the guy made it?” Peter said pointedly. “I must have brought it up half a dozen times. Once, I got desperate enough to start talking about how I might outgrow this suit, to which  _ you _ replied, ‘Oh, you’re not going to grow that much more. I can hear your bones. They’re done.’”

Matt looked gobsmacked, and Miles stifled a laugh.

Peter sighed. “Anyway, I’m on board for a new suit from Melvin. Obviously. Miles? Want cool armour? Or do you want some fancy pajamas?”

“Armor, please,” he said immediately.

“Great, let’s head over!”

Matt nodded and gestured for them to follow, grumbling something under his breath about ‘ungrateful teens who don’t tell you what they want and then hold a grudge that you didn’t get it for them’. Peter chose to ignore it.

When they got to the workshop where Potter built the suits, Matt motioned for them to fall in behind him. “Hey, Melvin, it’s me. I brought the others.”

“Hi,” he said cautiously.

Peter grinned back, even though it was hidden by the mask. “Your suit is so cool, dude! Did you make it out of carbon fiber?” Matt sighed at Peter’s line of questioning, almost imperceptibly, but he sounded fond, not annoyed.

The man’s face lit up at someone to talk to about the process. “Yeah, I made my own material! I figure out a process to make it tougher while still keeping it lightweight.”

The pair chatted about materials while he measured the teen vigilantes, but the conversation gradually shifted.

“When I first made the suit for Daredevil, I was still using _ silicone baths  _ for the armor,” Melvin laughed.

Peter wrinkled his nose a little, and Melvin nodded. “I know. Still,” he said, a little wistfully, “it did the job.”

“Why did you help him in the first place?” he asked curiously.

“He promised to protect Betsy from Mr. Fisk. And then after that? He keeps this city safe. If you two do the same, I want  _ you _ safe too. Betsy agrees with me.”

Peter smiled at him and nodded. “Thanks, Melvin.”

“Plus,” he added casually, “he gave me a little advice while he was waiting for me to fix a panel on his armor once. I make costumes, now, for theatres. Betsy’s real happy about it.”

“That’s awesome!”

Melvin finished with the measuring tape and went over to his blueprints. “So, Daredevil wanted a devil-themed symbol. What do you two want?”

Peter shrugged. “Probably something similar to this. I might come back here sometime to work with you on the tech for the eyes, because I like how expressive they are, and how to put the web shooters into the wrists. Oh, and the fabric has to be thin enough on my hands and feet for me to stick to stuff.”

“Thin, but still durable,” he hummed thoughtfully. “Okay, I can work with that. Come by anytime this week. And for you?”

Miles had been pretty quiet, and Peter noticed for the first time that he’d pulled a sketchbook out of his bag. “I drew some ideas for the design I want. I didn’t expect armor, but the premise is still the same.”

Melvin peered at the pages and grinned. “We can do that. It’s cool. Is that spray paint?” A nod. “I can leave that for you to add on if you want,” he offered.

“Thanks!” Miles said, beaming under his ski mask.

The trio left shortly afterwards, and Matt led them to a nearby perch of his.

“So, Miles, does anyone know you got superpowers?”

“My roommate. Um, that’s it.”

“You go to boarding school?” Peter asked curiously.

“Visions Academy,” he shrugged. “Won a lottery and passed the test. It’s um- it’s fine.”

Peter winced a little. Miles sucked at lying. “If you ever need to talk about school sucking, let me know. I can help you with your school work, obviously, and if it’s stuff like bullying, trust me, I have experience with that too.”

He nodded stiffly. “It’s fine, but uh. Thanks.”

Matt tilted his head after a few seconds, his frown deepening. “Your parents don’t know?”

“No?”

“Shit, kid, you should tell them.”

“But my dad is a cop! I’m not telling him I’m becoming Spider-Man, I’d be grounded for  _ years _ .”

“A  _ cop _ ? And you’re a vigilante?” Peter said, slightly horrified.

“We have to tell them something,” Matt said, more or less patiently. “Tell them you’re studying with your buddy Peter, and also his big brother Matt is there sometimes. I’m teaching Peter lawyer shit, and he’s teaching you science shit and tutoring you, and sometimes we pool our knowledge.”

“Man, are you sure?” Miles said skeptically.

Matt nodded firmly, and in his end-of-conversation voice, he said, “I always meet the guardians of the dumbass kids I teach to commit crimes.”

Peter sighed. “We stop crime.”

“By committing crime. You really want to argue technicalities with a lawyer?”

Miles’ eyes widened. “You’re a lawyer?”

“Cop’s kid,” he shot back. “No room to talk.”

“You’re a lawyer _ and _ a vigilante?”

“And he’s Catholic,” Peter added helpfully, fighting to keep the grin off his face.

“How are you even functioning?” Miles breathed.

Matt replied cheerfully, “A bunch of friends and three months of seeing a therapist. Start saving now, kid, you’re going to need it after a few years of vigilantism.”

Peter rolled his eyes. “Don’t listen to him. He has chronic drama-queen-itis. He doesn’t have the therapy because of all his vigilantism, it’s for all his  _ other _ issues. I’m doing  _ fine _ .”

Matt started laughing, the asshole.

“Asshole,” Peter said, the accusation second-nature after so much time with the other vigilante. “But, yeah, Miles, feel free to back out now. I guarantee you will get shot at some point. It’ll hurt,” he warned again.

“You’ve already told me. I know. I’m doing this,” Miles said stubbornly.

“That’s the spirit,” Matt chimed in. “You’re already on your way to being a great vigilante if you’re refusing to listen to logic! Next you just gotta learn how to be a self-sacrificing idiot despite everyone in your life telling you not to.”

Miles frowned. “Is that mandatory?”

Peter nodded cheerfully. “If you become a vigilante, you automatically lose all your brain cells. Them’s the rules.”

He laughed, and Matt groaned. “What the fuck is a brain cell, child. You’re talking to an art kid and a lawyer. I was a fucking  _ English major  _ undergrad. No one here understands math except you.”

Peter whirled on Miles. “Isn’t Visions another STEM school? We beat you guys in Academic Decathlon!”

Miles grinned at Matt. “Sorry, dude, you’re the odd one out here.”

He groaned in defeat. “Fuck. I’m making you two do my taxes next year. As punishment for insubordination.”

“I’d take payment in chocolate and pizza,” Peter said with a shrug and a laugh.

Miles added, “To be fair, taxes are business math. Yucky math.”

“Yeah.”

Matt seemed vaguely disgusted. “Ugh. Somehow when we were talking about opening up a law firm, neither Foggy nor I realized that we didn’t major in business. Or take a business class at all,” he admitted.

Peter’s jaw dropped. This, he hadn’t known. “Seriously? I knew you two were shitty business owners and never make a profit, but not a single business class?”

“Karen didn’t either, and she’s fantastic at it!” he protested.

“Didn’t she buy a ton of broken office equipment as a cover when she was investigating Fisk?”

“It wasn’t broken!”

“It wasn’t working, either!”

When Peter glanced over to check on their newest vigilante, Miles seemed highly amused, if slightly confused.

“Do you two ever have a conversation without bickering?”

“No,” they chorused.

“It’s Peter’s fault,” Matt added.

The teen gasped and spun dramatically back to face Daredevil. “You take that back!”

“Never.”

Their newest mock argument was derailed by Peter’s phone buzzing. Shit, his alarm. “I should be getting back, I have a test tomorrow. Early night tonight.”

Matt nodded, and turned to Miles. “Where do you live?”

“Brooklyn?”

“I can drop you off. It’s really late.”

Miles instantly looked relieved. “Thanks. It took forever to get out here. I wasn’t looking forward to the train ride home, but I wasn’t gonna say anything.”

He was a dragon almost instantly, and Miles climbed up (a lot more confidently than his first attempt earlier that evening) and glanced back at Peter. “You coming?”

“Oh, no, you guys have fun,” Peter said, jogging towards the edge of the roof. “I’m going to head back on my own. I haven’t gotten much of a chance to swing tonight.”

“Suit yourself,” Matt called back. “Tell May I said hi!”

“I always do!”

Peter pulled his mask back on and leapt off the side of the building, reveling in the free fall before throwing out a web and arching back up into the air. He savored the moment where he hung in the air, before gravity remembered it had a hold on him, and he swooped through Midtown. Before he knew it, he was swinging alongside a bridge, and the cold river below him was too wide to reflect the lights from the city. 

A dark silhouette passed, and Peter grinned up at the dragon above him. Reading the news was going to be wild tomorrow morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Miles is a sweetheart and would never commit crime. That said, we see him trespassing in the movie (when he’s tagging the subway tunnel with Aaron and when he’s getting the goober from Doc Ock with Peter B), so I went for that here with Oscorp, it’s just that he thought of it himself instead of following someone in. (but i like to think ganke was like dude, just sneak in. they’re got shitty security and WE NEED ANSWERS) Anyway this is all to say that him breaking into Oscorp might be a teensy bit out of character (i really wanted peter and miles to meet while breaking into oscorp, ok) but after a LOT of deliberation I decided it wasn’t outside the realms of possibility.   
> Also, I KNOW Melvin technically goes back and forth between bad guy and good guy in the comics, so daredevil season 3 is kind of fine, but i love tv melvin and I refuse to acknowledge the parts of season three I don’t like, so um! You know what! In this au, Fisk got shanked in jail. A solid end to any of his evil scheming. Poindexter isn’t fucked up by him (guy just needs some good therapy, ok? Stop demonizing mental illnesses, even if he is a fucking creep with Julie), Agent Nadeem isn’t fucked over by the insurance companies and stuff so he stays un-corrupt and alive, and MOST IMPORTANTLY Betsy and Melvin are happy and not dragged back into criminal endeavors. Let Melvin live his life, ok! Hrm, Fisk dying might be another chunk of fic i need to write into the timeline at some point. It’s going on my list (which is getting really long oops)

**Author's Note:**

> I'll delete this as soon as I actually write it, but if you need context on how and why Peter's gone from 'thanks, Mr. Murdock, I'm so glad you're here teaching me' to 'don't be an idiot, old man':  
> At the beginning, Matt wants to avoid treating him like he and Danny and Elektra were trained, so he uses his "I'm just a harmless friendly guy!" vibes. something happens (haven't decided what, yet) and Matt realizes that Peter has a lot more of a support network and was already fighting, Matt wasn't recruiting him, and starts to trust himself AND that Peter would tell him if he was getting abusive. Around the same time, Peter figures out that maybe authority figures don't always know everything (he never got to this stage with Iron Man because Stark was never around) and, well, matt's a human disaster at least 73% of the time.  
> anyway, my point is, over the year of training and working together, Matt and Peter got way more comfortable with making fun of each other the way people do when they've known each other for a while. (again, i swear i'm going to write this character development eventually, I just really wanted some miles on the page!)


End file.
